Three-dimensional television (“3D TV”) and other 3D displays deliver multiple-views to a viewer to provide a 3D video or image. In particular, 3D televisions and displays display two views, one for the left eye and one for the right eye. Many different standards for compression and distribution are used for providing these multiple views to 3D TV's and 3D displays. For instance, MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) standards specify a bit stream syntax and processes that are often used to decode streams corresponding to the multiple views. Other proprietary methods are known in the art for handling the transport and display of multiple views as well.
Decoders and post-processors of these multiple views generally treat each of the multiple views independently from the other view during decoding and post-processing. Post-processing is an important element in order to display the 3D video data since it can increase sharpness, reduce noise, scalar, and so forth. In particular, in digital video, graphics transmission, and/or processing (e.g., compression), noise may occur that may generate incorrect pixels. This noise may distort a video image and may interfere with viewing of the video image content. Noise may also create issues with regard to processing of video data. In some cases, random noise may be introduced during transmission of the video data from one device to another. White noise may be generally characterized as a Gaussian distribution in spatial and/or temporal domains, other types of analog noises in the video signals may not be easily estimated.
In various instances, noise may comprise an artifact of image processing, for example, an artifact of image compression. For example, MPEG compression may be lossy and, in some instances, it may distort the video content. In this regard, the more the video is compressed, that is, the higher the compression ratio, the less the reconstructed video resembles the original information. Some examples of MPEG video distortion are a loss of texture, detail, and/or edges. MPEG compression may also result in ringing on sharper edges and/or discontinuities on block edges. Because MPEG compression techniques are based on defining blocks of video image samples for processing, MPEG compression may also result in visible “macroblocking” that may result due to bit errors. When MPEG video compression results in loss of detail in the video image it is said to “blur” the video image. When MPEG video compression results in added distortion on the video image it is said to produce “artifacts” on the video image. Ultimately, the displayed video image can be blurred and riddled with artifacts.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art block diagram for processing 3D video data. A bit stream of 3D video data can be decoded to generate left view pixels and right view pixels of the 3D video data for display. The generated left view pixels and the right view pixels are stored in a memory 10 of the respective system. For post-processing, the left view pixels and the right view pixels are separately processed. A post-processing block 12 can retrieve the left view pixels and post-process those pixels for enhancement, including noise reduction, sharpness enhancement, peak reduction, artifacts reduction, and other post-processing. A post processing block 14 can retrieve the right view pixels and post-process those pixels for enhancement.
The post-processing block 12 outputs the post-processed left view pixels to the memory 10 for storage, and the post processing block 14 outputs the post-processed right view pixels to the memory 10 for storage. Thus, the left view pixels and the right view pixels are independently post-processed for enhancements. From the memory 10, the post-processed left view pixels and the right view pixels are outputted to a reformatting block 18. The reformatting block 18 arranges the post-processed left view pixels and the right view pixels for output to the display.
Thus, the post-processing hardware (e.g., line buffers) is duplicated for each of the views. For instance, one set of the hardware can be used to decode and post-process the left view and another set of the hardware can be used to decode and post-process the right view. Drawbacks of such approach include duplication of hardware and wasted chip area to provide for the duplicated hardware. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide new systems and methods for 3D video data post-processing using shared line buffers.